Chapter 62 - 59: The Tables Have Turned
Fudan University’s physics building. The examinees walked out of the exam hall, looking as if a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
Li Dong ambled along with the crowd, heading outside.
His expression wasn’t one of dejection, but there was a clear hint of regret.
Elder Chen, who had been waiting outside the exam hall the whole time, spotted him at a glance and handed him a bottle of mineral water.
"How did it go? How did you do?"
Li Dong took the water, twisted the cap open, and took a sip before letting out a long sigh.
"Sigh. Don’t ask. The final big problem... I couldn’t solve it."
"You couldn’t solve it?"
Elder Chen was stunned for a moment.
For the past week or two, he had been giving Li Dong special tutoring every single day.
He was keenly aware of Li Dong’s current level. Aside from a few "islands of knowledge" that hadn’t been fully bridged due to the short time frame, there were hardly any high school students in the entire country who could compete with the boy in physics.
If you were talking about Li Dong aiming for first place in the national finals, that might be a bit of a stretch.
But for the final problem of a commercial cup competition to make him utter those four words, "I couldn’t solve it"?
"What kind of problem was it, exactly?" Elder Chen was getting curious too.
Li Dong gave a wry smile and recited the problem word for word: "For a 28nm immersion lithography system at a scanning speed of 1200mm/s, the refractive index temperature rise error must be compensated to within ±1.2nm in under 1ms, all while keeping the cost below one million."
After hearing Li Dong’s recitation, the corner of Elder Chen’s mouth twitched twice.
"Heh..."
The first thought that popped into Elder Chen’s mind was—’Shameless!’
"Alright, I get it."
Elder Chen patted Li Dong’s shoulder, comforting him.
"Since it was an engineering problem of that caliber, I’m sure absolutely no one in the entire exam hall could have solved it completely."
"What everyone was really competing on was the accuracy of the first four problems and their approach to breaking down the final one."
"With your foundation, you definitely got full marks on the earlier sections. Don’t worry about it, you’ll be fine!"
Elder Chen smiled. "We have more important tasks ahead. Just think of this Huaxuan Cup as a warm-up."
After hearing this, Li Dong felt it made sense and nodded, relieved.
Walking beside Li Dong, Elder Chen didn’t tell him about his falling-out with Lin Wei that morning.
As a teacher, he shouldn’t burden his student with such worries.
If the sky were to fall, it was the teacher’s job to hold it up.
The established tradition for the Huaxuan Cup’s offline finals was that after the exam in the morning, the grading team would rush to produce the results in the afternoon, and the award ceremony would be held that very evening at Fudan University’s Guanghua Building.
This was because many teams from out-of-town schools had to rush back for classes the next day, making their schedules extremely tight.
"Come on, let’s head back to the hotel and rest. We’ll wait for the results this afternoon."
...
「Meanwhile, inside the temporary grading room Huaxuan Technology had set up on the Fudan University campus.」
Lin Wei and the head of the question-setting team, Old Zhou, were sitting in a private office.
On the desk lay several answer sheets that had been pre-screened by the grading team—papers that had substantive content written for the final big problem.
These papers were still anonymous, their barcodes sealed tight. Lin Wei could only see the content on the page, with no idea who wrote what.
"President Lin, take a look at these." Old Zhou handed over the papers.
Lin Wei took the exam papers, nodding from time to time as he looked through them.
"This one used a localized microfluidic forced cooling solution..." Lin Wei glanced at it and shook his head.
"Too idealistic. It doesn’t consider the volume and vibration of the pump. If you add a high-pressure pump to the wafer stage, the error from the vibrations alone would exceed 1.2nm."
He turned to the next one.
"Hmm, this approach should be from Qiao Fan of Rongcheng Seventh Middle School, or maybe that Zheng Hao from In the Demon."
"The derivation of the flow-heat coupling for the Navier-Stokes equations is beautifully done. His fundamentals are frighteningly solid."
Old Zhou leaned in for a look and chimed in his agreement.
"Yes, the top high school students these days... their use of these mathematical tools is already on par with some of the master’s graduates in our R&D department."
"A pity," Lin Wei sighed.
"The approach is good, but to achieve this level of real-time control, the computational power required is too high, and the cost..."
Nevertheless, Lin Wei was still quite satisfied.
"To be able to build the mathematical model to this stage already makes them a rare talent."
"Old Zhou, once the names are unsealed, make a note of this student. See if we can sign a joint training agreement in advance, so he can join the company right after graduating from university."
"Of course, President Lin. The high school students today are certainly getting stronger and stronger. The younger generation is truly something to behold..."
Old Zhou rattled off a stream of agreeable comments from the side.
However, after talking for a while, he heard no response from Lin Wei.
He looked up, puzzled.
He saw that Lin Wei hadn’t said a word. He was just staring calmly at the last exam paper in his hands, silently mouthing something.
Old Zhou didn’t dare to interrupt, only shifting his feet slightly.
But he still noticed that Director Lin’s hand, the one holding the paper, was actually trembling slightly!
If he hadn’t been standing so close, he wouldn’t have even noticed it.
After a long while, Lin Wei finally put down the paper in his hands.
"Haaaah."
He let out a long sigh.
Then, the ever-serious Director Lin actually began to smile.
And it was a smile of pure relief, as if a great stone had been lifted from his chest.
"Synchronously tune the light source wavelength, use feed-forward control for refractive index compensation..." Lin Wei muttered to himself.
He looked up at Old Zhou.
"Contact the arbitration committee and the notary office for this competition! I want the complete file on the student who wrote this paper!"
Old Zhou’s heart skipped a beat.
"President Lin, there’s still over an hour until the official unsealing. Is this... against the rules?"
"Rules are rigid, people are flexible! Just do it!" Lin Wei waved his hand dismissively.
...
「Meanwhile, in a hotel not far from Fudan University.」
Elder Chen held his phone, scrolling through his contacts.
’Guess I’m putting my old face on the line today...’
He pressed the call button.
The phone rang a few times before it was answered, and a hearty voice came from the other end.
"Well, well? Has the sun risen in the west? To what do I owe the pleasure of a call from Coach Chen?"
The person Elder Chen was calling was Wu Jianguo, a titan in the Fudan University physics department, a Changjiang Scholar, and the director of the State Key Laboratory of Applied Surface Physics.
But more importantly,
Professor Wu Jianguo was the doctoral advisor for Huaxuan Technology’s R&D Director, Lin Wei, back when he was studying at Fudan!
Don’t be fooled by the fact that Elder Chen was just a high school teacher. In the national physics competition circle, he had sent countless geniuses to top universities. His network at this level of academia was far beyond that of an ordinary teacher.
"Old Wu, cut the sarcasm. I’m calling you about something serious," Elder Chen got straight to the point.
"I need you to talk to that star student of yours, Lin Wei, and ask him for the right to academic publication."
Old Wu on the other end of the line was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing.
"Old Chen, oh, Old Chen, are you regressing in your old age?"
"For some academic publication rights, you’re cashing in that favor I owe you from way back when? Is it really worth it?"
Elder Chen didn’t tell him what level of a desensitization solution Li Dong had come up with, as it involved corporate secrets. He just said with a stern face,
"Never mind whether it’s worth it or not! Just tell me, are you going to help me or not? Stop being so wishy-washy!"
Old Wu was cracking up on the other end of the line.
"Ai, you old coot, your temper is as foul as ever."
"Alright, alright, I’ll give it a try."
"Make it quick!"
Elder Chen hung up the phone, still irritated.
Tossing the phone onto the bed, Elder Chen let out a long sigh of relief.
With Old Wu, his former mentor, applying pressure, Lin Wei would have to show him some respect. The plan was very likely to succeed.
However, Elder Chen had barely had a moment to catch his breath.
BZZZ BZZZ BZZZ
The phone on the bed suddenly started vibrating.
Elder Chen picked it up and saw it was an unknown number.
He answered the call with a frown.
"Hello, who is this?"
A polite voice came from the other end of the line.
"Hello, Teacher Chen. This is Lin Wei from Huaxuan."
Elder Chen froze on the spot.
’What? Is Old Wu that efficient?!’
’I just hung up the damn phone five seconds ago! Old Wu probably hasn’t even dialed the number yet, right? How could Lin Wei be calling me on his own initiative?’
Elder Chen immediately realized this couldn’t possibly be because of Old Wu.
He composed himself.
"Director Lin? Is there something I can help you with?"
For the next three minutes, the only sound in the hotel room was Elder Chen’s voice...
"Hm?"
"What?!"
"Is that so..."
"What?! Are you sure?"
His expression shifted from initial surprise to utter shock, a fascinating sight to behold.
"Yes, no problem. Goodbye."
With a CLICK, Elder Chen hung up the phone.
He turned around, gazed out at the bustling scenery of Shanghai, and clasped his hands behind his back.
Gradually, a "kindly" smile spread across Elder Chen’s face.
He looked out the window and murmured softly.
"The tables have turned, haven’t they..."